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Belle of the Golden West
Crew *Jacky Faber: Captain *John Higgins: First Mate, Master-at-Arms *Jim Tanner: Third Mate, Coxswain (Formerly); Mans tiller *Yancy Beauregard Cantrell: Gaming Dealer *Matthew Hawkes: Oarsman; Mans Starboard Forward Oar *Nathaniel Hawkes: Oarsman; Mans Port Forward Oar *Katy Deere: Lookout; She watches for snags, debris, and other shipping that might impede their progress. *Clementine Amaryllis Tanner: Cook's Assistant; she takes orders from Crow Jane, Higgins, and Jacky. Wash dishes, scrub floors, do laundry, and anything else she is asked to do in return for her keep. *Daniel Prescott: Ship's Boy; And in that capacity he is subject to the orders of every single person aboard. In addition, to any chores the others assign him, he has the job of looking after Pretty Saro, scrubbing her down and keeping her in the pink. *Tupelo Honey Sweet: Barmaid; She tends bar, waits tables, washes glasses and dishes, and helps with the laundry. *Honeysuckle Rose Sweet: Barmaid; She tends bar, waits tables, washes glasses and dishes, and helps with the laundry. *Pretty Saro: Pet Pig Shares *Faber Shipping: ten shares,; to pay for resupplying, repairs, and renovations, as well as to pay Higgins and Tanner. *Crew: All receive one share. *Daniel: A quarter share. Prizes *Cave-in-Rock: They found an assortment of watches, gold and silver coins, brass buttons, gold buttons, brooches, hairpins, necklaces, pearls. Powder, whiskey, several dozen chickens, clothing they would be able to use or else sell, and a guitar. There are piles of clothing, barrels of whiskey, and tons of other booty. Some food. Powder. Bullets. Guns. Piles of stuff. A flatboat and keelboat. They had such a torturous time keeping the three boats in a line that they decided to sell the latter two in Cairo. *Beams Family: 5 horses. Ship The Belle of the Golden West, is a river flatboat, technically a keelboat, because she has a hull that is built on ribs, not like the regular flatboats that are just floating boxes. She is pretty flat, though, because of the shallow water she has to navigate as she travels downriver, but she does have pointy ends, not like those other scows. She is quite elegant, in her way, in spite of the fact that she lacks sails. A wine cellar, was built. A partition was built across the back of the hold such that it makes a stateroom for the crew. Two bunks, one over the other, on each side, and a curtain between. So Katy and Jacky could be on one side and Higgins and Jim on the other. There was a door at the back so they have a private entrance, right back by the steering oar. A command post, as it were. In the passenger section, Katy sewed muslin curtains for each bunk, and Jim, under Higgins's supervision, installed locks on the cargo section where the wine and spirits and kitchen supplies were to be stowed. There was a bunk in the kitchen area for the cook. They were able to find a three-inch swivel gun. That's a cannon mounted on a swivel so that it can be easily aimed. The three inches is the measurement across the barrel's mouth. They also bought a deadly looking four-inch cannon. These guns are small enough that they won't tear the deck of the Belle apart when they are fired, but they are large enough to be effective. They also bought powder and shot, a dozen cannonballs for each gun, and some bags of rock salt, to discourage even the most persistent of pests. The four-inch cannon was installed up forward and secured tightly down, with the barrel sticking out over the bow. The swivel gun was mounted on the cabin roof, right in front of the quarterdeck. They made sure the apparatus holding the swiveling post that allowed the gun to be aimed was anchored in good solid wood. Even though this was only a gun with a three-inch mouth, still, the recoil was be quite powerful. Katy sewed canvas covers for the armament, as it was best that one's capabilities in that regard be kept from those who might be watching. Jacky hired a sign painter to paint Belle of the Golden West on either side of the cabin walls in big fancy gold and black letters. Jacky decided to have Clementine's bunk in the after cabin with her, what with those randy Hawkes boys sleeping upfront, and so she put her belongings on the bottom bunk, under Katy and her. They sleep on the top bed, because they've installed some portholes for light and ventilation, and that's where the porthole is. She likes to be able to look out when they're all locked down, and Jacky also like the air. They got a small table and four chairs, they are set up on the cabin top when the weather is good. Jacky had a sign painter draw a blue line on the deck. It runs from the port gunwale over the deck, up the side of the cabin, across the top and down the other side, over the starboard deck to the gunwale on that side. That line separates the quarterdeck from the rest of the ship, and all passengers were told that, for safety's sake, no one is allowed abaft that line except crew. The real reason for the line is that Jacky likes the separation. She had three young females back there and didn't need any nonsense in that regard. Plus, they must separate the officers from the crew. A bunk was offered to Crow Jane, but she let it be known that she'd rather sleep next to her stove. For one thing, she didn't take kindly to Jacky’s rule of no smoking at any time in Officers' Country, as it has become known. For another, she just liked it better there, next to her stove, with the Hawkes for company. They've known each other a long time and are comfortable with that. Some wide boards were made up that hook together at their edges, which they can lay from the Belle to any dock we might be next to, making a sort of stage area, where they can put on shows for the people in these port towns and thereby not have to find an accommodating tavern in which to perform. They also built some light benches for future audiences, which they've stowed down in the, at the time empty, cargo hold. They hired carpenters and had half the passenger berths taken out on the starboard side, to be replaced by a good, sturdy bar with shelves and racks behind to hold the bottles of spirits. Their long mess table would serve as tavern seating. Lanterns and lamps were set about to provide the warm and welcoming lighting. Cantrell wanted a small, round table set to the side, seating maybe six, for serious players. Jacky admonish him that she would brook no cheating nor skinning of helpless country boys, and he assures me that only serious members of the sporting class would be allowed to take their place at that table. On the floor to one side of that table, they installed a trapdoor, with a secret pull-lever handy to the head chair, to take care of any unruly patrons. Changes were made in the living quarters. Higgins was given a cabin of his own, as wasl Yancy Cantrell, and so, too, the Reverend. Jim and Daniel shared a cabin that has upper and lower berths. Matthew and Nathaniel each have a cabin and a Honey. The former officers' quarters became a girls' dormitory. They took down the canvas curtain that divided the male space from the female. Clementine, Katy, and Jacky retained their old beds, and Chloe took Jim's former bunk. This made bathing and other personal matters much easier. There is a short ladder at the back of the boat. Jacky also bought a ship's bell, made of bright and shiny brass, and she had it mounted by the helm. In case of emergency. Passage The fare was 12 cents a mile traveled: *Louisville: $38 *Cincinnati: $57 *St. Louis: $93 *New Orleans: $234 Passengers *Mr. Yancy Beauregard Cantrell, with servant → New Orleans *Mr. Manning and daughter Elaine *Mr. and Mrs. Pankowski and family, homesteaders *Mr. McDaniel, lumber merchant → Wheeling, Virginia *Mr. Brady → East Lick *Miss Umholtz, schoolmistress, Cincinnati Normal School *Reverend Jeremiah Clawson Story The Belle was “purchased” by Jacky from Mike Fink, for the price of fifty dollars. The Belle was a very well-made craft, well-found in her knees and planking. Quite new, too. Jacky thrusted her shiv into various parts of the frame, but I can find no softness, no damp rot of any kind. The belowdecks area is fitted out with twenty bunks on each side, with curtains that can be drawn over each for privacy. In the center is an open hold for cargo, with a ladder going down into the bilges. Jacky has named the spot on the cabin top the quarterdeck. Yancy thought that it might be nice to keep one of the boats they liberated from the river pirates as a sort of floating tavern and gaming place, but Jacky countered that by pointing out if we stopped carrying passengers, we could do the same thing with the Belle. And so it was decided and all agreed: No more passengers unless they could contribute to their general enterprise. They were mostly a bother, anyway. You had to feed them and all. Plus they would have had to hire on more crew, and Jacky wanted no more of that. Crow Jane was relieved, she was cooking for enough people at the time. No, it would be the Belle of the Golden West and their performances—Sanctified, Minstrel, or Medicine—that would see them downriver. On the way down from New Orleans, Nathaniel Hawkes and his wife, Tupelo Honey, and Matthew and his wife, Honeysuckle Rose, had come up to Jacky with a proposition: that they, in partnership with the Reverend Clawson, would take the Belle of the Golden West, herself, as the greater part of their share of the profits from the voyage, along with the rest of the whiskey and provisions on board. Crow Jane would be an equal partner and stay on as cook. It was their intention to continue to operate her as a tavern, on the New Orleans levee, with the Reverend as greeter and host, the Honeys as bartenders, barmaids, and local color, as it were. The Reverend had opined that there were surely many, many souls that needed saving in the city of New Orleans, and of that there can be no doubt. Plus, there were more bottles of Captain Jack's Elixir to sell. Jacky liked the idea that my Belle would continue as a showboat, as she believe she was born to be, and since the Belle would be of no further use to Jacky and was of little real value down at this end of the river, she agreed.